The Nicole Sandler Show

Welcome to Tuesday. I've had more than a few listeners ask me about ActBlue in the wake of D'ump ordering the DoJ to investigate the online fundraising platform used by Democrats and progressive organizations. Today we'll check in with Josh Nelson, CEO of Civic Shout, an advertising platform for progressive causes, who'll set the record straight. Then, a break from news and politics for a musical diversion. I'm joined by Cary Baker, author of "Down on the Corner: Adventures in Busking & Street Music," an old friendly acquaintence from my days in music radio. He tells a lot of great stories about street musicians aka buskers that are fascinating and fun to hear. I know it's not news and it's not politics, but that's a good thing because these breaks are a necessary diversion from the real (opposite) world we're stuck in right now!

A new week begins with news of a "$400 Million flying palace" that allegedly will be gifted by the Qatari Royal Family to Donald F'ing Trump!?! WTF? Oh there's more news too. Like the idea of suspending habeas corpus? Huh? I accidentally stumbled onto Newsmax over the weekend and was hit with El Dumpo on the tube trying to sell me a Trump Watch? Seriously? The President of the United States doing a TV commercial to sell a watch with his name scribbled on it. How is that legal? These stories and more as we cover the fucking news with Jonathan Larsen of thefuckingnews.substack.com.

It's Friday, so we made it to the end of another action-packed week. Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and I review some of the crap that Dump and his gang flung at us this week and try to make sense of it all.This week we got a new pope - one from the United States for the first time ever- and it seems he's "woke" and MAGAt heads are exploding. The tariff fiasco is ramping up in full swing, as some people are finally beginning to realize what this will mean for our economy, and Dump pretends he signed a great new trade deal with the UK (he didn't). SCOTUS lets Dump and Hegseth remove trans people from the military, but the North Carolina Supreme Court finally has to accept the election results and swear in the democrat who won the election six months ago(!).And the Dumpster fire says he doesn't know if he has to uphold the constitution or if all people deserve due process. Seriously...And finally, the federal judge in Vermont who presided over the bail hearing this morning orders that Rumeysa Ozturk, the Tufts University grad student who was abducted by masked goons in Boston, be released from detention "immediately" and on her own recognizance with no travel restrictions. We'll see if they comply...

I accidentally loaded the wrong show... this is the correct one. Sorry for the inconvenience! -------------------------------------------------------------- Today we get back to the news, issues and concerns about life in our messed-up world. I’m looking forward to talking with Antonia Juhasz again. She’s an investigative journalist who covers energy and environmental justice will join us to explain what the “deal” is with Ukraine over their rare earth minerals. We certainly can’t forget the oval office ambush of Ukrainian President Zelinsky. Her latest piece on this “deal” for Rolling Stone magazine is “Is Trump’s ‘Minerals Deal’ a Fossil Fuel Shakedown?” This morning though, justice was again denied in America. A Memphis jury acquitted three former police officers on state charges including second-degree murder in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023. It’s just too infuriating.

It's Thursday, so we'll talk politics with Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny.com and the Blue America Pac today... Lots of action, perhaps, in Congress where we can't help but hope the Republican caucus starts coming apart to derail some of this insanity that the orange one is unleashing on the world. Dump did announce a trade deal this morning with the UK. But is it a deal if it's not a deal? Only Congress can authorize a trade deal. But then again, only Congress can authorize tariffs. Who's going to tell him? And there's a new pope and, for the first time in history, it's an American. The man formerly known at Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, appears to be one of the good guys. He's even criticized JD Vance on Xitter!

Today we get back to the news, issues and concerns about life in our messed-up world. I'm looking forward to talking with Antonia Juhasz again. She's an investigative journalist who covers energy and environmental justice will join us to explain what the "deal" is with Ukraine over their rare earth minerals. We certainly can't forget the oval office ambush of Ukrainian President Zelinsky. Her latest piece on this "deal" for Rolling Stone magazine is "Is Trump’s ‘Minerals Deal’ a Fossil Fuel Shakedown?" This morning though, justice was again denied in America. A Memphis jury acquitted three former police officers on state charges including second-degree murder in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols after he ran away from a traffic stop in 2023. It's just too infuriating.

The world lost one of its better inhabitants this week. On May 1, 2025, Jill Sobule was killed in a tragic house fire. Words can't express our loss. Jill was truly a remarkable human being. I'm heartened by the continuing show of love and support I'm seeing all over social media for the last few days from her friends and fans alike... I was lucky enough to be working at a radio station who played Jill's first hit single, "I Kissed a Girl," when it was released on her debut self-titled album in 1995. Over the next few years, she visited radio stations I worked at to perform live and sit for interviews, and she attended a number of industry conferences where we got to hang out and become friends. Jill's many interests included news and politics. After I segued from my career in music radio to progressive talk, Jill remained a fairly frequent guest. She was always informed about what was going on. Jill was an outspoken activist in both her actions and songs. In 2011, she appeared at Netroots Nation in Minneapolis to perform an original song she wrote for the occasion honoring immigrants and groups who help them, "America Back." (You can find the recording of that song from that event here on YouTube.) I was going to put together a show to honor Jill with clips of her various appearances on my show over the years. While searching through my archives, I found this recording from September 1, 2009. At the time, I was hosting a show weeknights on Air America Radio, usually from my home studio in South Florida. That week, I was visiting Los Angeles, broadcasting live from studios there. Jill Sobule had just released her first crowd-funded album on her own new label, Pinko Records. It was produced by Don Was and titled "California Years." Jill and Don joined me in the studio one evening. With the commercials, news and other non-related content edited out it runs just over an hour. Sadly the recording stopped while we were wrapping up, with Jill in mid-sentence singing a "happy song" about a dream in which she was fighting Nazis. I hadn't realized I had that recording until I came across it this weekend. After listening to it I realized that I should just share this entire broadcast. We spent the time talking about so many different things, and she and Don performed a few songs. In that setting, you get to hear Jill just being Jill. Sweet, funny, immensely talented and quite humble. I'll soon put together a post with a bunch of the interviews we'd done together over the years. But for today, we'll hang with Jill Sobule for a while and remember how lucky we were to have her while we did. She did, indeed, live a good life.

We made it to another Monday after a weekend of more news that would be unbelievable at any other time in history, but here we are with a president (sic) who says he doesn't know if he must uphold the Constitution. We truly are living in Opposite World.Each Monday we check in with Jonathan Larson of thefuckingnews.substack.com to talk about wtf is going on in this surreal world. Sadly, there's a whole lot to talk about today...

Every Friday we end the week by spending an hour (usually a bit more) with Marcy Wheeler, one of the best independent journalists working today. You can and should read her daily at emptywheel.net and follow her on BlueSky at emptywheel.bsky.social. And, of course, listen to our weekly round up of some of the Trump shit that hit the proverbial fan that week. Today there was much more to discuss than we had time for. But we did speak quite a bit about Due Process and Trump's disregard of it and efforts to erase it from our rights. We spoke about the fact that he is the most corrupt president in history and his continued assaults on our independent judiciary. As always, Marcy's depth of knowledge informs and educates us. I learn something new from her every time we talk. I also spent a couple of minutes at the beginning with sad news about an old friend of mine. Singer-Songwriter Jill Sobule was killed in a house fire yesterday. I've known Jill for over 30 years. Much of my career was spent in music radio, and I was fortunate enough to work at a few stations who were adventurous enough to play her music. I'll dedicate a whole show to her next week, featuring some of our on air appearances together. But for today, I played a couple of her political songs -- a quick one at the beginning, and closed the show with a performance she gave at Netroots Nation in 2011 when my two radio worlds came together. I miss her already.

It's Mayday! The word "Mayday" is an internationally recognized distress signal used in radio communications, primarily by mariners and aviators, to signal a life-threatening emergency. May Day is also known around the world as International Workers' Day, commemorating the fight for workers' rights and the eight-hour workday. Both uses are fitting for today, as around the country, protesters are taking to the streets to speak out against Dump and what his administration is doing to this country and the entire world.Today is also Thursday, so we'll check in with Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny and the Blue America PAC. Today was an infusion day, so hopefully Howie will be up for talking with us today. Oh, and we have a new phone number to reach the show! It's 480-442-6584. Give it a spin and see if it works!

We survived the first 100 days of Trump's hell, depending on what your definition of "survival" is. In my case - and for millions of others, I suspect - just barely. I had a truly difficult time of it the first time around. I never thought we'd be back in this position again. And at the time, I didn't think things could get much worse. Unfortunately, I was wrong on both counts. I'm just trying to get through this hell one day at a time right now. I've heard from quite a few listeners who appreciate my work. There certainly is comfort in knowing that we're not alone in our misery and disbelief. So I promise to keep going a long as I'm able to. And I appreciate you bearing with me on those days when I simply can't, and just need a break. I'm envious of those who do this work and are able to keep a sense of humor while exposing the grift, immorality and vindictiveness that are representative of what this administration is about. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Brian Karem back to the show. We got to know Brian from his fearless coverage of the first Dump White House. He continues his important work with a column at Salon.com, his podcast "Just Ask the Question," his new substack, his books and his appearances on this and other shows that keep the information flowing

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker delivered a barn burner of a speech in Manchester, NH yesterday in which he spoke the truth about all we're facing right now, and made me hope he runs for president in 2028. He made a lot of great points, and I'll share some of them on today's show. But it was his call for mass protests and mobilization to get us to that point that I want to focus on. Last weekend at protest march at the Arizona state capitol in Phoenix I was impressed by one of the women who appeared to be leading the rally. Before the march began I introduced myself to Erica, also known as Weird Violet, who is an Arizona state liason to 50501, and has stepped up to be one of the many grassroots organizers pulling some of these events together. With the next big nationwide day of protest planned for this Thursday, May 1, I invited Erica to join me on today's show to talk about all of it. We all must do what we can. It's how we'll survive this mess and move past the worst part of history in my lifetime...

We made it through another treacherous week in Trumpville. Every Friday, I get together with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net who helps me unpack much of what happened since we spoke the Friday before. This was another week that felt like a decade! From Hegseth melting down, to Trump's continual lies and tweets (Vladimir Stop!), his newest illegal grift, a few judicial victories for the good guys (us) and even today's arrest by the FBI of a judge in Wisconsin for "obstructing an ICE arrest" --- we cover a lot of ground. Strap in and get informed....

Chaos. It's their mantra and goal.There's no way any one person can keep track of all the crap spewing from the White House these days, but I try to do my part in finding some of the stories that most infuriate me to share with you each day on the show.And today is Thursday, our day to check in with Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny and the Blue America PAC. Now is the time to start vetting our candidates for 2026!

After a break yesterday for a fun show about music and reliving the good old days, it's back to the real world today. The news is insane, from the orange one playing games with the world's economies, tariff roulette, SCOTUS & judicial uncertainty and more questions than we can reasonably answer. But we'll try. Today, we'll catch up with Lisa Graves, the Nicole Sandler Show's legal expert, who joins us in her personal capacity as a concerned citizen who's got the legal bona fides to back up her information and opinions. A big welcome to Randi Rhodes listeners who I hope will come join us more often now that Randi is retiring. We're here, for the time being, anyway...

Today we'll take a break from the depressing, stress-filled world of news and politics to talk about the best job ever. Today's guest is Paul Rappaport who spent his career at Columbia Records promoting rock records to radio and wrote a wonderful book recounting those glory days, GLIDERS OVER HOLLYWOOD: AIRSHIPS, AIRPLAY AND THE ART OF ROCK PROMOTION.

The weekend was chock full of news, beginning with a SCOTUS surprise at 1am on Saturday morning. For the first time in a long time, they ruled the correct way. Jonathan Larsen of thefuckingnews.substack.com joins me for our regular Monday debriefing session on what the hell is going on...

Each Friday, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and I get together to recap much of the important news from the week just ending. It's a daunting task, but necessary at this strange and fucked-up time in history. Today, we covered Trump's attempts to mess with immigration, his continued actions in shutting down the government, shutting down the global economy and the end of his BS attempt to negotiate peace between Russia and Ukraine. We talked about yesterday's ruling from Judge Harvie Wilkinson dealing with the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador and the administration's disregard for due process. You can and should read the whole thing here. It's only 7 pages and more than worth your time! Today also happens to be the 250th anniversary of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, the night before the start of the American Revolution. Tomorrow and Saturday are also days that the magat faction likes... 4/19 is the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, and 4/20, Hitler's birthday and other nefarious occasions. (I'd prefer a peaceful day celebrating cannabis, but that's now what I'm worried about.) With another National Hands Off Day of protests planned for tomorrow, and rumors flying about the possibility of Trump using this occasion to invoke the Insurrection Act, we have some warnings about being safe and diligent if you join in the protests tomorrow.

Howie Klein has been a regular weekly guest on this show for close to 15 years now. He writes at DownWithTyranny.com and runs the Blue America PAC where he champions the best progressive candidates running for office. Ten years ago, Howie successfully fought a rare form of cancer and enjoyed a clean bill of health for years. Unfortunately, a few months ago he was diagnosed with cancer again, this time pancreatic.I tell you this because today, at the time we usually speak, Howie will be at the hospital getting a chemotherapy infusion. As he told me, if it's just the infusion, he'll be able to talk. But if the doctor decides to come talk to him at that time, he won't. Either way, we'll understand and there's lots to talk about. Unfortunately the "lots to talk about" is all pretty fucked up.Another mass shooting - this one at Florida State University, more Trump insanity on multiple fronts, and ratcheting up fears around April 20 and the 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution.I think I need another Xanax...

Everything is FUBAR, and I'm not exaggerating. I constantly reiterate that it's almost impossible to keep up with all the shit that's hitting the fan. I should modify that to say that I personally cannot keep up with it all. But my friend Heather Parton, better known as Digby, does a great job of it with the help of Tom Sullivan, Spocko and Dennis Hartley at her wonderful Hullabaloo blog at DigbysBlog.net.We're midway through what is shaping up to be one of the worst weeks in an awful few months since this administration has been in power, so I thought today would be a great day for a meeting of the minds with Digby. I always feel a little better after talking with her. Hopefully you will too.